The present invention relates to a novel transfer sheet for marking.
Transfer sheets for marking are widely used which are applied to the surface of a substrate such as buildings, vehicles, implements, machinery or equipment to form a colored film of desired shape for transfer of a design or like marking to the surface thereof.
Conventional transfer sheets comprise a base sheet, a releasant layer, a layer of printed design or like marking (hereinafter referred to as "printed layer"), a layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive and a release sheet, all superposed in this sequence (e.g. Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No.72,097/1988). For transfer, the transfer sheet is applied to a substrate by removing the release sheet, pressing the exposed pressure-sensitive adhesive layer against the substrate surface portion to be marked, and separating the releasant layer and the base sheet from the printed layer.
However, conventional transfer sheets have drawbacks. With the exposed pressure-sensitive adhesive layer directed to a substrate, the conventional transfer sheet is applied to the substrate surface by pressing the external surface of base sheet toward the substrate initially at one end thereof and then progressively in a constant direction to adhere the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer to the substrate. Yet the conventional transfer sheet thus attached to the substrate remains unfixed at the sheet portions where no transfer has taken place. In this case, because the transfer sheet is adhered to the substrate only between the adhesive and the substrate, the displacement of marking and formation of bubbles tend to occur on the adhered portions, deteriorating the appearance of the marking. Further disadvantageously, the conventional transfer sheets are difficult to position when applied to a substrate, particularly at the start of application, hence low in the application efficiency.